


In [Harry Potter's] Heartbeat

by hopelocklet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Hogwarts Eighth Year, In a heartbeat - Freeform, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Harry, Short film
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 03:16:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11682885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelocklet/pseuds/hopelocklet
Summary: Thanks to a spell invented by Hermione, Harry Potter's romantic feelings have been brought to life in the form of annoying little floating heart that insists upon dragging Harry towards none other than his crush, Draco Malfoy.Based on the animated short, In a Heartbeat, by Beth David and Esteban Bravo.





	In [Harry Potter's] Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter, nor the short film, In a Heartbeat.
> 
> For those of you who haven't seen it, this animated short is so cute and it's just basically the best.  
> Anyways, this fic is really short and rushed, so be warned that there's probably many mistakes.

“Hi, Harry!” Hermione said brightly as she slid into the seat across from Harry at his table in the library.

“Hey, ‘Mione,” Harry responded absently, not breaking his gaze away from where Draco Malfoy sat, a few tables over. His Transfiguration essay lay forgotten on the table in front of him. Hermione rolled her eyes when she noticed that Harry had only written down two sentences.

“Listen, Harry, I was wondering if you could help me with some of my homework,” Hermione put forth.

Harry didn’t bother to reply this time. He probably wasn’t even listening, as he was far too distracted watching Draco saunter out of the library.

“Harry?”

Harry abruptly turned his head to face Hermione.

“Oh, did you say something? Sorry, I was…” Harry paused and blushed an intense shade of puce. “Daydreaming,” he finished quickly and coughed. “What were you saying?”

Hermione shook her head in amusement at Harry’s obvious crush on Draco.

“I asked if you’d like to help me with an assignment for my Ancient Studies class,” Hermione said and Harry gasped.

“Hermione Granger is asking Harry Potter for help with an assignment? I never thought this day would come. Well, go on. What is it you need my brilliant mind for?”

Hermione chuckled and answered, “Lately we’ve been studying ways to invent new spells with theories and techniques from Ancient Magic. This assignment was to create a spell that would make an emotion sentient. For example, you could cast a spell to make someone’s anger  sentient and a fireball or something would show up and lead the person to things that made them angry. Anyways, I need you to be a test subject for my spell.”

Harry frowned. “So you don’t need my brilliant mind after all.” Then he asked, “Why isn’t Ron your test subject?”

“Oh, Ron’s too busy.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Doing what? Last I saw him, he was playing Wizard’s Poker with Dean and Seamus.”

“He’s busy now. Helping Ginny with Quidditch strategies for the match next week.”

“Funny. I wouldn’t think Ginny would need any help-”

Hermione cut him off by clearing her throat loudly. “The point is, I’m in need of a test subject and you’re available. Are you willing to help me?”

“Sure, I guess. Which emotion did you decide to do?” Harry said.

“Love.”

Harry suddenly looked very nervous. “What kind of love?”

Hermione shrugged. “I was aiming for romantic love, but the spell’s a work in progress. Could turn out to be any kind of love.”

“So the spell will lead me to who I love.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Harry. “Is there any reason that would be a problem for you?”

Harry gulped and shook his head. “No. Not at all. Just, what if I don’t love anybody?”

Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered something about that being ‘highly unlikely’.

“What was that?” Harry questioned.

“Oh, nothing,” Hermione said breezily. She smiled. “I just said that in that case the spell would most likely lead you to someone you might love someday.”

“Oh,” was all Harry said.

Hermione frowned at her friend and said gently, “It’s alright if you don’t want to.”

“No, no. It’s fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” Harry said laughingly, although genuine worry flashed in his eyes for a moment.

“Okay then.” Hermione closed her eyes, directed her wand at Harry, and chanted, “ _Cor Adduco Amor_.”

A raspberry-pink heart about the size of an apple appeared out of thin air next to Harry. Harry shuddered involuntarily. The small, floating heart had huge eyes, tiny, expressive eyebrows, a little mouth, and miniature black arms and hands. Frankly, Harry found the heart to be extremely creepy.

Hermione felt very differently. “Aha! It worked!” she exclaimed upon opening her eyes. “Oh, and it’s so adorable.”

Harry eyed his heart in distaste. “It’s a little… uh, freaky.”

Hermione beamed. “It’s amazing. Look how it’s alive and moving.”

Sure enough, the little heart was floating around Harry’s person. It quickly latched onto one of Harry’s fingers and started pulling.

“What’s happening?” Harry asked frantically, trying to resist his heart’s powerful yanks.

Hermione laughed. “It’s leading you to your love like it’s supposed to.”

Harry wanted to protest, but the heart had finally gotten Harry out of his chair and had rapidly started dragging Harry out of the library. The only thing Harry had time to do before his heart took him racing through the Hogwarts corridors was grab his bookbag.

“Slow down!” Harry shouted in vain at the little heart as he was led towards one of the castle’s exits at a whirlwind speed.

Harry’s heart didn’t decelerate its speed even as it headed straight for Black Lake. For one terrifying moment, Harry thought his heart was going to drown him. But then, out of nowhere, his heart stopped pulling him. Harry found himself standing at the edge of Black Lake, for no apparent reason. Did the heart think Harry was in love with the Giant Squid? Harry looked at the heart for any kind of explanation. But Harry’s heart wasn’t even paying attention to him, it was focused on the faraway figure of Draco Malfoy.

“Oh,” Harry said stupidly.

Draco was walking along the shore of the lake, one of his hands holding a book that he was engrossed in, the other tossing an apple carelessly. He looked pretty damn attractive.

 _This might not be too bad,_ Harry thought as he and his heart watched the blond stroll casually. _Maybe the heart is meant to lead me a safe distance away from Draco, instead of directly to him._ But then Harry’s heart startlingly started moving again, not bothering to haul Harry along this time. It was headed straight for Draco. _Fuck._

Poor Draco was too involved in his book to notice when the apple he was tossing was replaced with Harry’s heart. At least, he didn’t notice until Harry was suddenly right behind him and accidentally grabbed his hand instead of the heart.

Draco stopped walking immediately and his eyes flew to where Harry stood, completely still and in a state of shock. Harry fumbled for an explanation while Draco stared at him with confused grey eyes.

“What are you doing, Potter?” Draco asked shakily. A light shade of pink began to color Draco’s neck and cheeks. Harry noticed that Draco hadn’t pulled his hand away, though.

“Uh, sorry, Draco. No, Malfoy. I meant Malfoy,” Harry sputtered.

“It’s okay. You can call me Draco,” Draco said. By that point, his face was entirely pink.

“Draco. Right. Good. That’s good. Uh, you can call me Harry, if you want.”

“Alright, Harry, care to explain why you’re holding my hand?” Draco’s tone was hesitant, not forceful or rude like the tone he used with Harry in past years.

“I’m not-” Harry started, but then he looked down at his hand. It was still joined with Draco’s. He must’ve forgotten to pull away. He promptly let go of Draco’s hand. “Oh, I, uh,” Harry stumbled over his words.

It was hard to think when Draco was looking at him with those piercing eyes, and blushing that light shade of pink. Harry opted to stare over Draco’s shoulder while he spoke. When he did so, he spotted his pesky little floating heart. Harry instantly reached behind Draco with both hands to catch the stupid thing. Unfortunately, the heart dashed away just in time and left Harry in an awkward position. _Fuck._

“Are you… hugging me, Harry?” Draco said. He sounded surprised. Well, of course he sounded surprised, his ex-arch-nemesis was hugging him, for Merlin’s sake.

“No,” Harry said, but he said it more like a question than a statement.

Harry dropped his arms and backed up, but he stayed close enough to Draco that their noses were almost touching.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Harry said, finally sounding sure about something.

“Oh,” Draco replied. His blush increased. “I thought- You know what, it doesn’t matter. We can pretend this never happened.” Draco took a couple steps backwards, creating a decent distance between him and Harry.

All of a sudden, Pansy, Blaise, Astoria, and all of the Eighth Year Slytherins showed up at the top of a hill behind Draco.

“Oi, Draco!” Pansy called.

Draco’s head whipped around to see his approaching friends. Harry used Draco’s distraction to quickly take his invisibility cloak from his bag and cover himself with it.

When Draco looked over his shoulder and saw that Harry was gone, he sighed in relief. Harry tried not to let that bother him.

“Where have you been, Malfoy?” Blaise asked Draco when the group of Slytherins reached the blond. “You missed it! Nott caught Parkinson and Patil snogging in a broom closet!”

“Patil, really, Pans? You weren’t the one who broke up her and her girlfriend, were you?” Draco responded easily, only a touch of anxiety in his voice.

“No, but I wish I was. I suspect I’m only Parvati’s rebound. Or maybe she’s just shagging me to make Lavender jealous,” Pansy speculated.

“Oh, poor Pansy,” consoled Daphne Greengrass. Her sister, Astoria, snorted.

“I’m sure Pansy doesn’t mind being used,” Astoria said amusedly.

Pansy laughed in agreement. “Pansy doesn’t mind at all.”

A pink shape edged into Harry’s vision as he watched the Slytherins converse. He realised that his heart was under the invisibility cloak with him. And his heart looked rather eager to be near Draco once again. _Fuck._

Not a moment later, Harry’s heart shot out from underneath the invisibility cloak, holding onto Harry’s finger and bringing the raven-haired boy with him towards Draco.

Before Draco could process what was happening, he was knocked to the ground by the force of Harry and his heart running into him. The heart let go of Harry’s finger in order to saddle up next to Draco’s cheek and comfort the fallen boy. Draco was blushing again, and he was looking at Harry’s heart skeptically.

“What the hell?” Pansy said.

Harry ignored her and grabbed his heart by one of its tiny arms. The heart fought back against Harry and desperately latched onto one of Draco’s fingers.

Draco’s eyes widened as he seemed to realise that this heart belonged to Harry.

For one long, intense moment, the two boys were stuck in this tug of war of sorts. Green eyes met grey and the world shifted on its axis. Harry shuddered and Draco’s expression softened. But then Draco turned around for a second to look at Astoria. Harry’s pull on his heart became brutal and he could feel his tug start to give way as the heart cracked down the middle.

Finally, the heart was split in two. Harry held his half close to his chest and ran. He didn’t look behind to see the shattered look on Draco’s face.

Ten minutes later, Harry was sitting underneath a (not whomping) Willow Tree. He stared despondently at the incomplete heart in his hand and muttered, “Fucking stupid spell. Fucking stupid heart. Obviously there’s something wrong with the spell. The heart shouldn’t have broken like that.”

“No, it shouldn’t have.”

Harry looked up and was stunned to see Draco standing before him, half of Harry’s heart in his hand.

“Draco,” Harry said.

“Harry,” Draco returned. That adorable blush of his crept up his neck onto his face. “I’m sorry your, uh, heart broke. We could try putting it back together.” He kneeled in front of Harry and held out the broken heart.

Harry could see the vulnerability in Draco’s eyes and he smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

Draco smiled back. He tentatively cupped his hands around Harry’s and watched in fascination as the heart mended itself. And then, it disappeared. All that was left were Harry and Draco’s hands. Harry twined their fingers together and admired the way Draco’s long, elegant, pale fingers complemented his own rough, darker fingers.

“Wow. That was cool,” Draco said

Harry laughed. “Very eloquent, Draco ‘I take Advanced Arithmancy and two Ancient Runes classes’ Malfoy.”

Draco’s blush deepened. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I happen to be an extremely articulate person. Just not so much when you’re holding my hand.”

Harry smirked at the site of their joined hands. “I understand.”

“So why do you think your heart vanished?” Draco asked.

“I reckon it finished its job. Led me to where I’m supposed to be.”

Draco nodded and bit his lip. Harry’s gaze dropped to the blond’s mouth. Draco released his lip and brought his face closer to Harry’s. There was a second when they just sat there, nose to not-so-pointy-anymore-nose, breaths mingling, both waiting for the other to make a move. Draco, as it turned out, was the one who leaned in and at last pressed their lips together. The kiss was short and chaste, but Draco was still breathless when he pulled away.

“Wait, how do you even know about my Advanced Arithmancy and Ancient Runes classes? Have you memorized my schedule or something?” Draco abruptly questioned.

Harry burst out laughing.

“I’m serious, Harry.”

“Like you haven’t done the same thing,” Harry accused.

Draco scoffed. “As if! I would never do such a thing.”

“Then how do you know about my Charms class on Friday mornings?”

“You don’t have Charms Friday mornings, you have Care of Magical Creatures.”

“See? I knew you did it too.”

“What? That’s not fair, you tricked me!”

“That hardly matters.”

“It matters to me, Potter.”  
“Oh, we’re back to ‘Potter’ now, are we?”

“That’s right. And it will stay that way until you apologize.”

“I have a better way of making it up to you.”

Harry and Draco sat under the tree, talking and kissing, for hours.

And Harry realised how right he had been. His heart led him exactly where he was supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, sorry for any mistakes or any parts of the plot that don't make sense.  
> Thank you for reading! Comments are great :)  
> If you want to watch the animated short, search 'in a heartbeat' on youtube. It's very popular!


End file.
